Lightroom 4 Beta Q&A – The Day After

First off, I wanted to say a HUGE thanks to Tom Hogarty for spending the day with us at Kelby Training yesterday to answer all of your questions (and to Adobe for letting Tom get away for the day). The live broadcasts will be running all day so feel free to stop by Kelby Training’s website and watch them. Also, Tom and I answered a bunch of questions over the course of the day. I figured I’d dedicate a Q&A day to some of the most popular ones:

Q. If I upgrade to Lightroom 4 Beta, will it hurt or corrupt my copy of Lightroom 3?
A. Not at all. Lightroom 4 Beta is a totally separate install and doesn’t affect your copy of Lightroom 3 at all.

Q. Can I use Lightroom 4 Beta for my production work?
A. I wouldn’t really recommend it. Adobe definitely doesn’t recommend it. Having your paycheck tied to a beta version of the software probably isn’t such a good idea. That said, I can’t guarantee I’ll follow my own advice

Q. Can I upgrade my catalogs from Lightroom 3 to Lightroom 4 Beta?
A. Didn’t you read the previous question? You’re not really supposed to move your production/important work to LR4 Beta. In an effort to keep you from doing just that you can only create a new catalog for LR4. You can’t open an existing one from a previous version of Lightroom.

Q. Okay, but will the final release version of Lightroom 4 upgrade my Lightroom 3 catalogs though?
A. Absolutely!
Q. How about all the work I do in the beta version of Lightroom 4. Will that get upgraded too?
A. Yup. Adobe doesn’t make any promises that they’ll upgrade your beta stuff but in the past they’ve always been able to.

Q. Will Lightroom 4 Beta only work with Photoshop CS5?
A. Nope. Lightroom 4 will work just fine with CS4 (or CS3 or CS2 or Elements for that matter).

Q. Where can I get some awesome Lightroom 4 training?
A. Great question! No one really asked this but it’s a good way for me to plug a few things. First, Scott Kelby and I created NAPP’s Lightroom 4 Beta Launch Site. And don’t forget all of the live webcasts that Tom and I did on launch day over at Kelby Training.

Q. When will the final version of Lightroom 4 be released?
A. Adobe hasn’t officially announced this yet. In the past it’s been anywhere from 2 months to 14 months.

Q. Really? So you’re gonna leave us hangin’?
A. Sorry… I’ll lose my cushy Lightroom gig if I reveal any more I can say this… The expiration date listed for Lightroom 4 Beta is March 31, 2012. Typically, it’s not good practice for a company to let the beta expire without releasing the final version before the expiration date. It tends to leave people hanging and forget all about your brand new version of the product. That’s all I’m sayin’

Q. Will my plug-ins work with Lightroom 4 Beta (for example, onOne’s software, Nik’s Silver Efex Pro or Viveza)?
A. Here’s the deal. The official answer is that you should probably ask the plug-in company. Adobe does provide them with pre-release versions of the software so they can start planning and making their plug-ins available. That said, I installed Lightroom 4 Beta and most of my plug-ins were carried over in the Photo > Edit In menu. So give it a try. But officially, most plug-in companies probably won’t make any major updates until the final version of Lightroom 4 comes out.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any other questions, post them in a comment and I’ll do round 2 of Q&A.

Matt is the full-time Director of Education for Kelby Media Group and a Tampa-based photographer. He's the Editor-in-Chief of Lightroom Magazine, the lead instructor on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom LIVE Seminar Tour and author of several best-selling Photoshop books. Matt also hosts the world's top Lightroom blog, LightroomKillerTips.com, where he's built up a massive library of Lightroom videos, presets and tips. In addition to teaching Photoshop, Lightroom and photography seminars around the world, he's an instructor at Photoshop World and one of the full-time staff writers for Photoshop User Magazine.

Really? No one posted a comment here all day? I can understand that in a way. You seem to have covered just about everything there, Matt. I have a couple of points though. You mentioned in your casts yesterday that the Book Mode was Blurb compatible . Does this mean it would work straight away on the Beta? Could I make a book and upload it to Blurb? I’d really like to as it seems like a great feature. Also, any word on price? Any word as to whether there will be an upgrade as well as full price? Or shouldn’t we be asking the money questions yet? OK That’s it. Thanks for the help so far. Best wishes to all.

Hi John.
Yep, you can order right away… it’s live. I think Blurb would gladly accept your money before the final version comes out

As for $$. Here’s what I would say.
Yes, Adobe always had an upgrade price for every version. Typically it’s been $149 I think. In the future, I’d expect them to be competitive with whatever else is on the market just as they usually are.